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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

How to stay awake during night feeds part 6 - all welcome to join us!

999 replies

funchum8am · 03/01/2013 14:05

Hi everyone, cannot believe we have exchanged over 5000 messages!

mrsn when we shared our locations on here a while back, heff, goat and I all turned out to live near Uxbridge so we met up having met on here. It is lovely, if you are ever down south let us know!

macaroons sounds like we are in the same boat Hmm I officially return to work on 15 Feb but that is actually the Friday before half term so only have that day and then another week off before full time return hits. I am lucky that DH is being a SAHD til 1st July so no drop offs, pick ups or worries about the childminder ringing me because babyfunch is ill etc, and she is in great hands with him, much as I have been critical of him til we talked it over recently. However I am worried about being at work on no sleep - I will get in a lot of trouble if I lose my rag with a pupil or indeed a member of my team (one of whom is a pain). I will have to perfect the art of letting some things go (eg uniform issues in the corridor as opposed to in my lessons - I spend a lot of time arguing with pupils about these and intend to stop save for the very worst!) and dealing with others by just reporting bad behaviour to heads of year rather than dealing with it myself. I am head of faculty so will focus just on what happens in lessons in my faculty rather than working quite so hard on having the best corridor behaviour in the school in my area - it is great having that but takes a lot of time, energy and conflict so it will just have to go n the back burner until I am getting proper sleep again. At this rate dd will be in year 7 by then herself and can help me!

OP posts:
Izzybuzzybuzzybees · 15/01/2013 22:51

Just done a successful transfer :) wonder how long he will sleep for??

StitchAteMySleep · 15/01/2013 23:25

Good luck everyone, hope the sleepy fairy does her rounds.

My two are tucked up quiet as mice, just hoping that stitch has a calmer night.

Smallgreenone · 16/01/2013 00:07

1st feed which is normally 11 and hubby does it. Too late for DH now as he's at work tomorrow which means its good that he's sleeping longer but bad that I have an extra wake up tonight. Fffffffffffreeeeeeeezing here already, no idea what temp is but I bet its minus something. Ugh. Also my iPad has moved itself from baby smalls room and I can't find it. DH will have borrowed it and not put it back, so annoying when e does that.

MrsNPattz · 16/01/2013 00:12

First feed here - I've not been asleep along and am soooo sleepy!

Macaroons · 16/01/2013 00:16

Hi all. Just did late feed.

Just wondering do your baby fall asleep on their own, or do you do something like rocking to help them fall asleep? Starting to do some sleep training following advice from various friends - I.e. putting baby mac in bed while he is sleepy but awake, he was quiet for the first minute then he cries and screams...

Friends say it will get better after a few days and after that baby will fall asleep on their own. I really hope this will work in the long term as its heart breaking to hear him cry. But on the other hand the current method of me being a human dummy, or hubbys patting and rocking can't work long term... So.... Confused Confused Confused

Ameybee · 16/01/2013 00:17

Well done on weightloss mrsn that's fab! I do daft things all the time - stuff like throw spoon away but keep yoghurt pot or put tea bags in fridge.

First bottle here, our timings have been better today so that's good.

Feel super sleepy too as only been asleep an hour or so.

Hoping for no 'waking to fart' tonight! Grin X

Macaroons · 16/01/2013 00:18

Smallgreenone. So envious that you are only 3 pounds away from your dream weight. I'm 30 pounds away Hmm just looked at the mirror and I look like I'm 4-5 months pregnant still. Not happy Confused starting to do 15 minutes exercise everyday hope this will help.

Well done to tooodle and mrsn for weight loss!

Ameybee · 16/01/2013 00:19

Macaroons, we rock/cuddle to sleep still, intending to do pick up put down / ssh patting but not till 6 months. He suddenly took a dummy recently which helped (after being a refuser!)! Xx

Original poster
funchum8am · 16/01/2013 00:36

We have has sudden dummy success here too. Very helpful when she needs to suck to be soothed to go to sleep as I used to be the dummy!

I recently discovered that if I leave her to cry for a few minutes she drops off beautifully - I felt bad the first couple of times but it works every time. Now we leave her in her cot awake for all naps and bedtime and she cries for maybe 2-3 mins then conks out and stays that way. This does depend on reading her cues right, not clock timings, but she is becoming very predictable. Before this I thought I would be feeding her to sleep forever! Hope you find a method that works for you...every baby is different and I fully agree they are to young to be left to cry for any length of time til at least 6 months absolute minimum.

OP posts:
Macaroons · 16/01/2013 01:16

I'm back. After 30 minutes of crying we picked him up and he didn't look distressed at all. Was even smiling when we put him in our bed. Felt like we have been manipulated. Nursed him to sleep eventually but I really don't want to be a human dummy. So will give this another go tmr.

The success story on the baby centre website makes me want to give this a go, especially seeing baby mac wasn't distressed after 30 min of crying.. I'm probably more distressed than he is Confused

www.babycenter.com/0_baby-sleep-training-cry-it-out-methods_1497112.bc?page=4

Original poster
funchum8am · 16/01/2013 02:01

You did well to survive 30 mins of noise! Interesting that he is not distressed, how old is baby mac?

OP posts:
TheDarkSideOfTheSpoon · 16/01/2013 03:12

Still up here. She woke for feed at 2 and have had two transfer fails since then. Currently being used as a dummy in the hope she will fall
Asleep.

macaroons we are feeding or rocking to sleep here, she's only 14 weeks at the moment. I'm counting down the days until she's old enough for some sort of sleep training as I think she is actually getting worse instead of better!

Well done on your weight loss mrsn!

Time to attempt yet another transfer...

Smallgreenone · 16/01/2013 03:42

30 mins, I can't manage more than 5, he's so loud! We are going to sleep train at 6 months I think if he's no better. Currently working on changing his bedtime routine so his bottle is not the last thing with the reasoning that he then won't associate feeding with sleep. Gradually reducing that bottle and then once its gone I will put in cot awake but won't leave him to cry, probably pick up put down baby whisperer thing. It's hard isn't it? Baby small is in bed with us now taking up a huge amount of space for someone so small!

MrsNPattz · 16/01/2013 03:53

Second feed here - I jinxed it by asking him to sleep through didn't I!! I have to be up in just over 2 hours Sad

We feed or rock to sleep too!

BrainGoneAwol · 16/01/2013 05:06

Oops missed a lot of chatting!
funch the stretches we do are:

  1. Diagonally opposite arm and leg stretch flat out and then brought in to crouch hand to toes (or knee) x5 (each side)
  2. Lift under the tummy into a mini crab arch x5
  3. Rub tummy clockwise x5
  4. Bottom cheek massage (with him still on his back, so lifting his bottom a tiny)
  5. Leg bicycling, getting full stretch x5 each leg
  6. Repeat 2.
  7. Tummy crunch, legs stretched straight and then both knees straight up to chest. Like a partial backward roll. At this point he usually blows out anything!
  8. Since and repeat until we've had two run through with nothing coming out.

macaroons babybrain is now nearly 21 weeks and has never slept through. The best he once did was 8, 11, 4, 7 around 3 months. We just seem to be returning to that now

mrsn and toodle nice going on the weight. I keep seeing the c25k everywhere and pretending I might do it one day! Hmm

Doing silly things constantly. Though my main problem is being forgetful. Have to ask DP to email me from work to remind me what I said I'd do in a day.

Babybrain currently has to be rocked to sleep. Letting him cry is a disaster. He just cries himself hoarse and then looks at me accusingly. I tried it once and after 45 mins decided it wouldn't work with him.

What a huge post I've written Shock

BrainGoneAwol · 16/01/2013 05:07

Oops missed a lot of chatting!
funch the stretches we do are:

  1. Diagonally opposite arm and leg stretch flat out and then brought in to crouch hand to toes (or knee) x5 (each side)
  2. Lift under the tummy into a mini crab arch x5
  3. Rub tummy clockwise x5
  4. Bottom cheek massage (with him still on his back, so lifting his bottom a tiny)
  5. Leg bicycling, getting full stretch x5 each leg
  6. Repeat 2.
  7. Tummy crunch, legs stretched straight and then both knees straight up to chest. Like a partial backward roll. At this point he usually blows out anything!
  8. Since and repeat until we've had two run through with nothing coming out.

macaroons babybrain is now nearly 21 weeks and has never slept through. The best he once did was 8, 11, 4, 7 around 3 months. We just seem to be returning to that now

mrsn and toodle nice going on the weight. I keep seeing the c25k everywhere and pretending I might do it one day! Hmm

Doing silly things constantly. Though my main problem is being forgetful. Have to ask DP to email me from work to remind me what I said I'd do in a day.

Babybrain currently has to be rocked to sleep. Letting him cry is a disaster. He just cries himself hoarse and then looks at me accusingly. I tried it once and after 45 mins decided it wouldn't work with him.

What a huge post I've written Shock

BrainGoneAwol · 16/01/2013 05:09

Gah silly phone double posting (not my fault obviously!
Also in 1. That should be 'touch' not 'couch'! Confused

TheDarkSideOfTheSpoon · 16/01/2013 07:16

Well that could have been a lot worse I guess, only one real feed when she woke at 2, but it took til 4 to get her back to sleep. However still massive improvement on the last few nights so here's hoping the good nights will return.

Going to see a friend for lunch today, she's 37 weeks pg so it'll be strange because last time I saw her I was about that and now I've got my baby. Does anyone miss their bump? I do quite often, although DH tells me that I have rose tinted specs on and I did in fact hate being pg!

Hope lots of sleep was had last night :)

Original poster
funchum8am · 16/01/2013 07:23

brilliant thanks brain! Last night I made the mistake of getting babyfunch up and walking her up and down the stairs to wind her - cue wide awake (and resolutely non-winded) baby crying for half an hour, me in tears, DH missing out on loads if sleep (though he was wonderfully helpful bless him) and eventual lying down feeding for rest of night. I feel soooo tired now plus both eyes are sore, not sure why.

Thankfully my mum is coming this afternoon...apologies goat and heff but I am in no fit state to do buggyfit Sad Probably would crash the car if I drove!!

sorry to moan....hopefully those exercises will help with future wind issues Smile

OP posts:
smicha · 16/01/2013 08:05

Just checking in to say that without you lot I may have suffered a breakdown by now Wink

16 weeks now and aside from the post-swimming good night, mini smich is showing no signs of sleeping through and I'm exhausted! Two feeds after midnight and then up at 7 seems to be the norm. If this thread didn't exist I'd think I was doing something wrong based on people I meet in RL who apparently have sleeping babies. Thank you all for sharing this hell with me Grin

We start baby massage today so looking forward to that. And then my parents are coming for a few days... I can get some naps in! Yey!

Macaroons · 16/01/2013 09:07

Hi all - re the 30 min last night, its 5 min of crying 2 min of sshh-ing and patting, then 10 min of crying, 2 min of sshh-ing then 10 min of crying etc etc. then we thought that's enough as he's sweating so much and we didn't want him to be over heated.

Baby mac eventually fell asleep after being picked up and using me as a dummy at around 1am, and then he's up at 5.30, then at 8.30. Not bad actually. He's 18 weeks.

We are going to give this a try as he really didn't seem that distressed after being picked up, although it was hard when he was crying. We could tell at first he's like cry for few seconds, then quiet for 10 seconds to see what happens (see whether we will pick him up?) then cry for few seconds again and stops for 10 seconds again, then a minute later he goes into the full blown crying. Feels like he just wants to be picked up rather than being distressed?

Hope out babies will eventually sleep through the night. It's better for them and for us sleep deprived parents

MrsNPattz · 16/01/2013 10:27

Well that was a waste if time - there is nothing they can do about my eyes. Just use lubricating eye drops blah blah which I already knew!! So I left little man and had to wait at the hospital for over an hour for nothing Blush and to top it off I have the dentist and drs this afternoon!!

I miss my bump heff, but when I get Envy of people's bumps I remember that they have to give birth and go through the first two weeks with a newborn!! Haha and I look at my beautiful boy and he's my bump so it's all good Smile

MissingMyMarbles · 16/01/2013 10:55

Trying again with cot daytime naps. She's in there now, have heard a little whimper but otherwise quiet. 27 weeks and still not sleeping throughSad With DD1, I had no expectations because she was prem. Missmarbles was full term, I do did have expectations and I am finding it a lot harder. On a good night, it's three hourly feeding. Last night, 10.30, 1.30, 2.40, 4.40 transfer fail, 5.20 transfer fail, in with me (DH already up), co-sleep til 8.30Hmm Perhaps once she starts crawling, she'll sleep better

Ameybee · 16/01/2013 13:10

Oh my god the nap thing is pissing me off SO much. An hour and 10 transfer failures! Why oh why will he only sleep in my arms in the day??! I've come down to eat my lunch and left him to moan because its driving me bonkers! Confused X

Tooodlepip · 16/01/2013 13:17

Hi all

Heff yes I miss my bump, but I think I will miss having a tiny baby more, its weird how in love with a little person one can be Grin, I actually feel broody again but I know that will soon wear off once lil pip takes to his feet

smicha this thread is the bees knees as far as I am concerned, I don't know how people survived mother hood without a smartphone or tablet etc in the past Wink

baby pip had his last set of vaccinations today and is asleep now in his car seat having had calpol, I hope he doesn't fuss to much later although I do feel sorry for him as he had 3 needles ouch!

we are still on 3 hourly feeds at night but since the reflux has calmed down I am ok with that and he does have one lone stretch.

Last night he fed at 10, 1:30, I think it was around 6 and then up at 8

I am seeing my counsellor on mon again, the first meeting last week was just a lot of questions really so we shall see how that goes, I have to take baby pip with me I hope he sleeps through it.

Macroons, baby pip can fall asleep on his own when he feels like it but recently he has decided that the best place to fall asleep is in my arms Hmm I don't know if I can be bothered to break that habit, as I'm happy enough as in the middle of the night he will feed and go straight into his cot. Now if he decides to go through a let me play with mummy for 2 hours at 3 in the morning then I might be shhing and patting too.